On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 11:44 AM, Peter Heckert <[email protected]>wrote:
> > I think the actual energy was lower. > It is not possible to transfer an energy of 120 kW via a small surface > into the water without producing steam bubbles. > It is for example possible to hold a glowing peace of iron under water and > it keeps glowing. This, because a thin layer of steam covers the iron and > isolates the heat from the water. Blacksmiths do this > You make an excellent and important point. If the power really had been 130 kW in that small a device for any appreciable time, it's surface in contact with the water would have heated up very rapidly to very high temperatures. The boiling would have transitioned from nucleate to film and the resulting vapor in contact with the boiling surface would have impeded the heat transfer. The likely result would have been thermal runaway and an explosion or melt down. I think the obvious error was in the flow measurement. In addition the thermocouples were not calibrated and a small delta T was used. According to the little Levi would say anyway. Maybe the whole thing was a mistake or a ruse. How would we know? For those not familiar with heat transfer from hot surfaces to liquids, this may help: "Film boiling Main article: Leidenfrost effect<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leidenfrost_effect> If a surface heating the liquid is significantly hotter than the liquid then film boiling will occur, where a thin layer of vapor, which has low thermal conductivity <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_conductivity>, insulates the surface. This condition of a vapor film insulating the surface from the liquid characterizes *film boiling*." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling BTW, Film boiling is responsible for the phenomenon of fire walking. It has nothing to do with mental states except for the state in which someone is dumb enough to risk permanently injuring their feet via burns in case something gets in the way of the protective vapor film.
